Movement toward peace in the Middle East has required the intervention of God. We have all witnessed events in recent months which indicate He has guided events and people to bring about the circumstances that have stunned the world. As believers, we know what we have seen is not coincidence but the outworking of an active divine hand.
God’s early intervention
A year-and-a-half ago, the peace plan was nothing more than a dream for believers in God’s plan. Yet, even as the hard-line Likud government was ruling Israel, the seeds of peace were being planted. “In April, 1992, Yossi Beilin, then an opposition member of Parliament, got to know Terje Rod Larsen, head of a Norwegian institute researching conditions in the Israeli occupied territories. If Mr. Beilin wished, Mr. Larsen said he could put him in touch with senior Palestinian officials. By July, 1992, the Labor party was voted into power, Mr. Brilin was Israel’s new Foreign Minister and Mr. Larsen was back in Jerusalem renewing his offer” (New York Times, Sept. 5, 1993).
What, in April, 1992, had seemed an uneventful meeting of policy researchers was actually the foundation for a peace process that has come to encompass not only the Palestinians but also the nations surrounding Israel, including long-time foes Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Why peace now?
For the past 25 years, the Palestinian Liberation Organization has been demanding a form of self-rule for the occupied territories. Yet, until recently, these demands had fallen on deaf ears. What changed?
A detailed reading of the record reveals God’s hand at work on two fronts so that the peace process could begin. First, according to the New York Times, “The PLO was in disarray. Yassar Arafat was scrambling to hold onto power; the organization’s once fat bank accounts were drying up, in large measure because of its own political miscalculations, and its loyalists were losing ground fast in the occupied territories to Islamic militants gathered under the banner of the Hamas.” The Israeli government was thus left with a distinct choice: begin the formulation of a peace initiative with the PLO today, or let the current situation fester, thus increasing the influence of Hamas. The Israeli government decided on the first alternative, thus cutting off the Hamas organization at its knees.
Second, the overcrowding of the Gaza strip finally began to strain the political and financial resources of the Israeli government. Until now, the violence emanating from the Gaza was controllable by the Israeli defense forces. Now, however, “the overcrowding on the costal strip has become a political and financial headache, a seething source of terrorism and a death trap for Israeli soldiers forced to patrol its towns and refugee camps” (New York Times).
These two situations are examples of events being controlled by God for the ultimate outworking of His purpose. There were, no doubt, many other less obvious pieces to the overall picture.
Overcoming government decrees and ethnic hatred
The Norwegian government, which acted as chief mediator, had to formally ignore their own anti-Israel stance that dated back to 1973. In that year, an Israeli hit squad gunned down a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway. Israel thought he was an agent of the Arab guerrilla group that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. They shot the wrong man. Since then, Norway has held an anti-Israel policy. This two-decade old attitude, however, was no restraint when the Lord chose to work through the Norwegians.
Discussions leading up to the agreement also violated the Israeli laws which prohibit private contact with declared terrorist groups, including the PLO.
In addition to formal government positions, there is long-standing hatred between Jew and Arab which goes back nearly four millennia to the antagonism between Isaac and Ishmael.
All of these barriers, however, are now falling before the divine hand.
Jericho’s walls collapsing
The first agreement scheduled to be implemented involved a plan to pursue Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza strip and the city of Jericho. During Joshua’s time, the literal walls of Jericho collapsed through the intervention of God. Today, providential developments are leading to the tearing down of Jericho’s political walls.
We may be seeing the beginning of Israel living at peace, in unwalled villages (Ezk. 38:11).
These are early days
Even with agreements being signed, this will not mean immediate peace for the region. God’s intervention must continue in order for generally peaceful conditions to prevail. As the New York Times reports, “Already Ahmed Jabril, the Syrian sponsored Palestinian guerrilla leader, has issued a statement threatening Mr. Arafat with the same fate as Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt, who was felled by an assassin’s bullet. (In addition) unidentified Israeli hard liners threw a grenade at the home of a cabinet minister” (August 31, 1993).
As we read these words, Jeremiah’s statement echoes a cautionary note in our ears: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). There is still a long way to go, but as recent events have revealed and as we are reminded by the dramatic fall of the iron curtain in Europe, the hand of the Lord can work enormous change with great speed.
Events to date help us realize God’s master plan will one day be fulfilled. Only through His divine intervention can events reach fruition and the world experience age-lasting peace. May that day come quickly.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One